π‘ππ!
Spider-Man zipped through time once again, using the last bit of Godspeed energy within him to hopefully make it back to the right time period. Seeing no one around him, he disabled his Spider-Matter and revealed his normal clothes underneath.
He pulled out his phone, however, it had the exact same time of day on it from when he disappeared, December 26th, 2019. Since he wasn't paying his phone bill, due to the whole being practically dead part, his phone didn't automatically update to the current time.
He began walking through the city inconspicuously, attempting to piece together what year it might be by analyzing his surroundings. The vehicles, the devices, and the style of clothes that everyone is wearing lead him to believe that he's in the present.
He continued to walk throughout the city until he found an old man standing in front of a memorial statue. Eren approached and realized that the statue was of himself, Spider-Man. This statue also happened to be in the exact location where he took off with the Green Goblin before his presumed death.
The old man with his slick-back gray hair, striking grey mustache, and tinted sunglasses, looked over at Eren briefly before continuing to admire the statue. Eren approached him and stood next to him as he also observed the memorial of the late hero.
There was a brief silence between the two until the old man spoke to him. "You know, I still miss him." Eren looked at the man's faint smile of admiration before smiling himself.
"You a fan?" Eren asked the old man, resting his hands in his jacket pockets.
The man turned his head and looked toward Eren, glancing at him in the eyes through his shades. "Yeah, big fan. He saved my life once. I was on that plane a little over a year ago. The one that almost crashed into the One World Trade building. I watched from the window as he put his body on the line just to save us all."
"Is that right?" Eren responded with his hands still in his jacket pockets. He didn't recognize him.
'So it's been over a year, huh? My future self did say that this is when I should come back.'
"My grandson loved him too. He used to run around the house pretending to be the hero, I even bought him one of those knock-off costumes..." The man paused with a small grin on his face before continuing.
"You know, what I like about the costume is that anybody in any part of the world can imagine that they themselves are under the costume. And that's a good thing."
Eren turned his head and looked at the man with his eyebrows raised. The old man's words somewhat resonated with him. "Right. I never thought of it that way..."
There was once again a brief silence between the two before Eren excused himself. "I gotta get going. Have a good day, sir."
"You too, young man." The man directed his shining smile at Eren as he watched the boy walk away, oblivious to the fact that he had just met his hero face-to-face.
Eren thought to himself as he walked away, wondering what was going to happen if he obtained that black suit. 'It's gonna all change once I put that on.'
Eren continued walking through the city, not ready to face his friends just yet.
Many different scenarios of the future played through his head as he strolled the streets by himself, however, they all lead to the world ending.
Eren eventually noticed a sign that had the date on it. It was April 4th, 2021. Meaning he missed out on about sixteen months of his life. He missed two of his own birthdays, as well as two of Cindy's and Harry's, who both were born in February.
In terms of literal biological age, Eren was still nineteen, however, according to the date, he was twenty years old.
Eventually, he found himself standing in between the graves of Mary Parker and Richard Parker, thinking about what his father told him.
'That must be what my future self meant when he talked about sacrifices. My power... I thought it was a curse, but Dad is right. It's not a curse. Not just my powers, but everything. My intelligence, my knowledge of the future, and my abilities are all gifts given to me so that way I can change the outcome of our future. It's my responsibility to do so.'
Eren could hear the soft, whirring sound of some sort of machine behind him. He turned his head slightly to see two familiar faces, descending on a hoverboard behind him. It was Silk and the New Goblin, Cindy Moon and Harry Osborn, his two best friends in the whole world.
Harry thought she'd gone crazy at first, but her Silk-Sense told her that Eren was back. The two of them immediately headed over to where she was sensing him, only to find a boy who looked like him from behind, standing in a cemetery.
"Eren?" Cindy's voice asked, still only seeing the boy from behind.
Eren turned around fully, looking at their faces and smiling at them both.
They were so different, yet the same as he left them. Cindy looked a bit older, a bit more mature while still having that youthful, pretty face of hers. Harry was very different, he was massive, and his muscles were even larger than Eren's, having more of a boxer's body than a gymnast's.
Harry lifted his visor, looking at Eren with his own two eyes for the first time in sixteen months. Eren opened up his arms as he walked toward his two best friends before they both jumped off the board and sprinted to him.
"Eren!" They both shouted, hugging him so hard that they nearly knocked him over.
"I thought you were dead." Silk spoke through her tears, soaking Eren's shoulder with them. "Why did you leave me for so long." Hearing her say this caused him to feel incredibly sorry for her. It didn't really register to him just how much she longed to see him once again since it hadn't even been a day for him, technically. The grueling sixteen months of his absence felt like a flash to him, but to Cindy, it was almost an eternity without him.
"I'm sorry, Cindy. I'll explain it all when we're all in private, okay?" Eren whispered into his lover's ear as she continued to sob uncontrollably.
"I missed you, man. I thought we lost you." Harry, hiding his tears, squeezed his best friend tightly as his muffled voice spoke into Eren's shoulder. He too longed to see his best friend once again.
"I missed you too, Harry." Eren's eyes remained shut as the three of them continued their group embrace. "I missed you both. I love you guys."
Cindy grabbed Eren by the face and quickly locked lips with her long-lost lover, prompting Harry to back off and tease them. "Ugh, get a room!" he told them both with tears in his eyes.
Eren and Cindy continued to kiss passionately before Cindy pulled back and started proclaiming her love to him, all sixteen missing months' worth of it. "I love you, Eren Parker. I love you so much." Eren smiled, looking at her beautiful face with loving eyes.
"I love you too." He told her before she kissed him once more, caressing his lips with hers, this time with one long, passionate kiss.
"I love you so, so much." she told him tearfully, before hugging him tightly and burying her face in his chest. "Never leave me again."
"I won't." Eren lied to her gently. "I promise."